


Behind their Eyes

by Enigma_Griffin



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Body Horror, Enderman Hybrid Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Kinda, Kinda?, Monsters, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Not in a traditional sense, One Shot, Second Sight - Freeform, Short, Visions, maybe the real gods have been inside us all the time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28783245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enigma_Griffin/pseuds/Enigma_Griffin
Summary: Ranboo has often tried to ignore his enderman abilities, but with some encouragement from a family friend he takes a longer look at the people around him.Short one shot for now.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 354





	Behind their Eyes

“What are you doing in my house Dream?” 

Technoblade deadpanned, welcoming the masked man into his house. Phill leaned on the wall, smiling lightly as he usually did at the start of their conversations. Ranboo had been talking with Techno and Phil before Dream had entered and glanced up as Technoblade stepped aside and let Dream inside, his half piglin hoofs clicking against the wooden floor as he shut the door behind him.

“Well-” Dream started. 

Ranboo sighed, feeling awkward being in the same room while this discussion happened. It had almost become commonplace. Dream would come over, try and play some mind games, most of which would fly over Technoblades head while Phil laughed it off or made light of the situation. 

A noise caught Ranboo’s ear, and he swiveled toward the corner, keeping his eyes lowered. There was a new enderman in the boat now, someone Techno had not named yet but jokingly called Edward 2. 

* _Do you see them?_ * It asked.

Ranboo turned towards the three in the room, all discussing their current situation. He softly responded, trying not to draw too much attention to himself.

* _Yes, there are three of them and are talking to each other._ * Ranboo responded, a bit confused on what the enderman was trying to say.

 _*Do you see them?_ * It asked a second time.

*Yes, they’re wearing armor, but I can see them.* Ranboo said, trying to shake the question. They asked strange questions sometimes, Ranboo was in the mood to humor the enderman for a moment

* _Do you see?_ * It asked again. * _The eyes.*_

‘Eyes?’ Ranboo wondered. The word ‘eye’ was strange in the enderman language, sometimes it meant the physical eyes and other times it didn't. Ranboo never quite figured out the secondary meaning to the word eye. He never liked eye contact. It wasn't ever something he wanted to see, and when many eyes focused on it it made him agitated for reasons he really couldn't explain. Well he could. It was part of his nature. But he never liked to focus on that part of himself. 

* _What do you mean ‘the eyes’?_ * Ranboo asked the enderman. 

The conversation seemed to be getting a bit more heated, Technoblade was discussing something about Badboyhalo or Tubbo, while Dream kept mentioning Wilbur’s name, which seemed to concern Phil. Ranboo knew he should stay out of whatever was going on over there.

There was a small noise of frustration from the enderman, something almost adjacent to their noise when they were agitated. 

* _The Eyes. Do you see their Eyes?*_

Ranboo looked toward the enderman before looking back at the group of three. Their eyes? What was wrong with their eyes? He weighed the possibilities. Small groups like this wouldn’t affect him, he thought, only the large groups, five or more, that's when eye contact was bad. Besides, he knew these people. It was Phil, the man who brought him out of La’Manburg, Technoblade, who he had gone raiding with and the man who was allowing him to stay here where it was protected. The only person who concerned Ranboo was Dream, and Dream didn't even have any visible eyes. Maybe looking into their eyes, or in Dreams' case where his eyes should be, that couldn't be too bad. 

Ranboo began to focus on Technoblades eyes. It was harder to see them behind the armor, but he could catch glimpses of the dark black and brown eyes. He hadn't ever really paid attention to them before, it always felt like a deeply personal thing to see a person's eyes. Besides, Techno was like his landlord. They hadn’t gotten to that point yet. Well, it was a first time for everything, and from overhearing this conversation, it wasn't like there was anything else to do.

Ranboo stared toward Technoblade, moving slightly to get a better view at his eyes. Something was weird. The longer he looked the more it seemed that something was just different.

Ranboos vision shifted. It wasn't like any lighting changed, but in a moment, he could see more, like he could see past what was there. There was Technoblade, his normal armor still on, his small tusks poking through and piglin ears twitching, but it wasn't just him. Around him, enveloping the physical form was something entirely different. The form was fuzzy at first but the longer that Ranboo stared the clearer it became.

Technoblade shifted again, and the new form became the only thing that Ranboo could see. His blood ran cold. 

Standing before him was a monster. It’s head was a boar's skull, with long gilded tusks curving up and around the skeleton face. The skull rested on a series of vertebra which disappeared into the creature's long, bloody royal cloak. The cloth covering his body was formal but blood stained, the clothing fading to tatters at the bottom where golden hooves were still visible. The body pulsed with a brilliant red energy and in its boney hand he held an axe. The body was hulking, giant in its side, standing almost a foot taller than Techno’s normal body. It filled up the space almost to the ceiling. 

Around the skull hung a floating crown, its points sharpened and dangerous, the gems inside glowing with energy. In the empty sockets of the face hung two black eyes, circles of gold in place of the iris. The thing breathed, causing a billow of smoke to escape its boney nostrils, obscuring the entire skeleton face, only leaving the glowing golden eyes staring at the person next to him.

Slowly Ranboo turned his attention to the next person. To Dream. It was harder to see Dream, there were no eyes for Ranboo to focus on, but he noticed the strings, glowing strands that had tied themselves around the tusks of Technoblade, that lead towards a second thing's body. The second monster had six arms sprouting from the human body, though it looked like one of the arms had been partially cut off. The remaining five limbs’ hands were covered in glowing green strands, leading beyond where Ranboo could see outside the small room they were in. Some of the hands seemed inviting while others were covered in blood or gunpowder, one even held a long clean sword. Looking closer, some of the strings had been severed and hung limply in the air. 

Some of the strings led further up from his hands and Ranboo followed them up to the halo that was hovering over the monster's head. Ranboo quickly realized the thing was still wearing the mask that Dream wore, or more appropriately, the head was the mask. The spherical bone white head floated above the six limbed body. The mask was perfectly inhuman in its mimicry of humanity. The void black eyes of the mask held nothing within them and the smile remained exactly in place, motionless and yet still alive somehow. As Ranboo stared at the head, it tilted slightly, remaining perfectly in place floating above the body yet moving slightly in an almost questioning motion. Vaguely he could hear Dream asking a question. The body itself pulsed in a light green aura.

There was only one person left. Ranboo almost didn't want to look but a flicker from Phil caught his eye, and he turned, realizing what caused the movement. The thing standing in Philzas place looked the most human out of all of them. It still looked like Phil, it even had his green hat, and his hair, even the scruffy beard. Attached to the human body were three sets of blackened wings, its feathers soft and dark. Each wing had a grey eye resting at the bend of the wing, and a series of eyes decorated the tips of the feathers. Each eye moved and blinked together, but for now they were all focused on Dream. Resting in Phils hands was a long deadly sharp sword. His hands were covered in blood. It dripped onto the ground beneath him.

Philza’s, or, it wasn't really Philza, the creature's face was different, more worn and serious, a counter to the normal relaxed expression he usually wore. His blue eyes glowed underneath his hat, stern and powerful. Circling his head were three halos, shining with a warm golden glow that seemed to light up the room. One of the eyes on the wings noticed Ranboo looking at him and turned to look at Ranboo. Quickly the other eyes noticed him as well, all of them turning in their sockets on the wings to look at Ranboo. Finally, the creature that stood in phil’s place turned to look at him as well. There were so many eyes on him now.

Noticing the shift in focus the floating white head turned towards Ranboo, both of the fake eyes now rested directly on him, and its smile was mocking and menacing. The boar monster's skeleton skull looked at him as well, the hollowness behind his eyes and the golden gleam for blood was focused on him now. He could see the steam billowing out as the monster’s skull huffed and breathed. Ranboo ripped his eyes away from the demon monster looking at each of them in turn as he began to shake. The pressure of the eyes was like a block of obsidian pressing on Ranboos head. 

There were so many eyes. They were monsters. What were they? They all wanted something, they had to, they had to want something, they all were looking at him. 

Ranboo blinked in and out of existence. 

There were monsters, he had to go, he had to fight. 

He blinked out of existence, teleporting slightly to the left. 

He could almost hear the voice of Dream in the panic room. The walls felt like they were turning black. Why were they looking at him? What did they want? Why can't he remember? 

Darkness.

The monsters.

Darkness.

Light.

Darkness.

“Ranboo!”

Ranboo suddenly felt two hands gripping his shoulders. He looked up again, seeing the concerned face of Philza above him. Immediately, Ranboo looked down, shaking and refusing to make eye contact.

“Ranboo, are you ok?” The soft british accent asked him. Behind him Techno and Dream were also looking at him, Dream radiated with annoyance, hands in his pockets, and Techno seemed bored. The glimmer of concern in Techno’s posture was just the lighting, and the step closer he had taken was just because he wanted a better vantage point of the room..

“Yeah! Yeah.” Ranboo still couldn't look up. His eyes scoured the ground looking for something to say. “I just- uh-” 

He couldn't think of an excuse. He had to get out of here. 

“I was just thinking. Of something else. I should- uh- I should check on the- the birds.”

The birds? Really? That was one of the lamest excuses Phil had ever heard, and he had raised Wilbur. Something was going on with Ranboo, something had scared the half-enderman. But nothing could be done about it right now, more questions would just result in a breakdown. Ranboo needed to get to a safe place, and right here, under the gaze of people he didn't know, Ranboo didn’t feel safe. 

“I think that would be good.” Phil reaffirmed Ranboos' decision, “Hey, Techno, you got any food for your dogs? They’re looking a bit thin.”

“Uh, yeah yeah, we lost a couple on a temple raid, I mean, some of them kinda did it to themselves, but I do need a few more.” Techno rustled through his stacks of chests. He had no idea what was going on with the kid, but if he was volunteering to do work for him, he couldn't refuse the offer. Techno tossed Ranboo a few stacks of meat. “Here ya go.”

“Thank you.” Ranboo pulled out of Phills grasp, swooping up the meat and grateful for a way out. 

Edward 2 made another sound, noise to everyone else but to Ranboo the sound had meaning.

* _You saw them._ *

Ranboo didn't respond. He practically ran out of the room, clutching the meat close to his chest and almost bumping against Dream and just barely remembering to close the door in his rush to leave. A few seconds after the door closed, as Ranboo was out of earshot Dream spoke.

“Well that was weird.”

Techno chuckled. Nothing was funny, but it filled what could have been an awkward pause. “Well,” He said lightly, “He is just getting settled, I'm sure he's going to be ok. Nothing to worry about, he's got a few nerves.”

“He was talking to Edward Two I think.” Phil commented softly, looking out the window to watch Ranboo enter into the dog kennel. 

Dream seemed to perk up, turning towards Phil. 

“He can talk to the endermen?” Dream questioned.

Techno intervened, “Yeah, it’s just a pastime of his, nothing too big or important, he used to talk with Edward before he died.”

Dream paused, looking at the closed door toward where Ranboo had left. “Interesting.” He switched gears looking back to Techno. “Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, how did Edward die?”

“Oh now that, that's a funny story,” Technoblade answered, starting on the new story trying to cover over the situation that had just happened.

Phil listed halfheartedly, his mind now on the half enderman. That visible breakdown was strange. Phil had seen Ranboo’s refusal to look at him and the flickering, both very obvious enderman traits. Ranboo had almost always been in control of the flickering, especially when he was around others. Phil had often thought Ranboo was trying to hide that side of himself, or was embarrassed by it. Something had to be serious to cause him to do that in front of so many people.

Phil looked toward the shack that Ranboo stayed in. He would need to have a conversation with the half enderman. Ranboo had seen something in this room. And Phil wondered what the half enderman had seen.

Meanwhile Ranboo was desperately grateful to do something. Just to not be in that room. He focused on the tasks, but he skirted the water and any reflective surface, trying to focus only on the fur of the dogs or the ground of the potatoes. He couldn't bear to see his reflection right now. Even though one thought kept circulating in his head, a question he wanted to know and yet never wanted to know.

If those three looked like that, what would he look like?

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I might turn this into a longer piece but for now, enjoy this one shot!


End file.
